Hopefully future action photos taken from my blackberry won't come up blurry, but posting this one of Plymouth-Whitemarsh senior leaping machine C.J. Aiken just to give an idea of his enormous ability.

The St. Joseph's bound 6-foot-10 Aiken scored 14 points with four dunks and five rebounds in the Colonials' 52-50 loss to nationally ranked St. Benedict's of Newark, N.J. in the top game of the 15th annual Lehgh Valley Hoop Group Showcase at Parkland High.

It was Plymouth-Whitemarsh's first loss in 18 games. It was heart-crushing, but not totally devastating.

St. Benedict's, after all, is 15-1 and ranked No. 7 in the country by USA Today. P-W (17-1) is ranked No. 1 among 4A schools in Pennsylvania and Aiken is a big reason.

Hard to believe that the North Carolina's and Kentucky's of the world didn't recruit him. He can fly out play, jump and score.

Ok, so Aiken was mistakenly overlooked, underrated before committing to St. Joe's, but it's stunning that P-W is not ranked nationally.

Can't get that way now after a loss, but the Colonials are a very good basketball team.

"If I'm ranking teams from USA Today and ESPN, then what do I do?" asked Plymouth-Whitemarsh coach Jim Donofrio. "It's a good old boy network. I start at St. Anthony's, then go to DeMatha, then 11. Mater Dei, Santa Ana, Calif. (17-1), and then I say, 'Well Ok, I'm going to look at St. Benedict's and then we make calls regionally and we figure out and maybe then on a consideration.

"But the bottom line, C.J. Aiken can play anywhere in the country. Jaylen Bond is going to play anywhere in the country. If you have those two guys son a team and five guards who can play from D-I to D-II level and they l play well together and have a lot of heart, I don't know, we rank ourselves nationally."

The Parkland wrestling team left its home gym dejected Saturday night, but it will have to perk up quickly. Another shot at Nazareth is a definite possibility.

Nazareth won the last four bouts, including a critical ultimate-tiebreak victory by Greg Noll, to edge the Trojans 29-24 in a tense and thrilling Lehigh Valley Conference match at Parkland. Nazareth (11-1, 7-0 LVC) wrestles Northampton on Wednesday night with the conference title on the line.

Should Nazareth win, it will clinch the LVC title and the top seed in next weekend’s District 11 Class 3A duals. If that happens, and as long as it closes the regular season with a win over Whitehall on Wednesday, Parkland likely will get the No. 2 seed for districts. Which means a potential rematch in the duals final Saturday night at Freedom.

Pins, and the lack thereof, were decisive Saturday night at Parkland. The Blue Eagles revived themselves with back-to-back falls from Aaron Bradley (215) and D.J King (285), then stayed in the match by avoiding pins elsewhere. Ethan Dilcherd might have lost 12-6 to Andy Moore at 160, but he somehow kept a hard-charging Moore from pinning him in the third period. What’s more, Dilcherd reversed Moore late in the third to reduce a major to a regular decision.

Wednesday night at Nazareth should be another tense affair. Northampton coach Terry Daubert lamented his team’s uneven wrestling following a 37-25 victory over Bethlehem Catholic last week. Then the Konkrete Kids went 3-0 at their home duals, including a 32-30 win over Council Rock South, the top seed for the District One duals.

Elsewhere on a busy Saturday of wrestling:

--Parkland’s Mike Ottinger scored an overtime takedown to edge Nazareth’s Ryan Krecker 3-1. It was just the fifth takedown Krecker has allowed this season.--Easton continued to rebound from its 1-3 showing at the NHSCA Final Four, beating Liberty 38-38.--Pen Argyl’s machine rolled on. The Green Knights won 27 of 28 bouts in a pair of matches against Northwestern and Freedom. Pen Argyl (13-0) can clinch an unbeaten regular season, the Colonial League title and the top seed for the District 11 Class 2A duals with a victory over Palmerton on Wednesday.

The way to defend a good 3-point shooting team is by moving your feet and by getting a hand in the jump shooters face.

American did that by design today and handed Lafayette just its second home defeat in 11 games this season, 76-66 at Kirby Sports Center.

Lafayette, the top-scoring team in the Patriot League (74.1 ppg) and top 3-point shooting team (.388 pct) was just 5-of-21 on 3's (23.8 pct).

"We were very concerned with their scoring effort, scoring ability coming in," American coach Jeff Jones said. "What we said we needed to do was make them work for everything, not allow them in transition. They'are probably not, nor are we, the fleetest of foot but they run hard and they kick the ball ahead and they get a couple layups, get open 3's. We wanted to take those away, do the best job as we could and not have breakdowns, which I thought for the most part we did."

Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon, while complimentary of Americans' defensive effort, was disappointed with his team's inability to get free and make something happen, especially late in the game.

"We didn't respond to opportunities offensively that wwe didn't take advantage of," O'Hanlon said. "We have to do a better job of reading their defense."

The battle for playoff spots is entering the final stretch. Most girls basketball teams in both the Lehigh Valley Conference and Colonial League have five league games remaining heading into Friday's crowded schedule.

Among Friday's highlights are Liberty facing Nazareth, Bangor playing Northern Lehigh and Wilson traveling to Southern Lehigh. Several other games will also impact the league playoffs races.

Here are my latest league rankings, with records through Thursday.

LVC

1. Northampton (15-1). The Konkrete Kids visit Liberty on Tuesday in a rematch of last year's District 11 Class 4A final.

2. Central Catholic (14-2). The Vikettes again showed their grit in Tuesday's comeback win over Nazareth, pushing them closer to another division title.

4. Nazareth (13-2). The Blue Eagles need to beat Liberty on Friday to avoid an 0-3 record against the three teams ahead of them in the league standings. They will get another crack at Northampton to end the regular season.

5. Parkland (11-6).The Trojans are the only team other than the LVC's Big Four with a winning league record.

6. Easton (9-6). The Red Rovers need two more wins to clinch a spot in districts.

7. Freedom (8-8). The Patriots need three wins to qualify for districts. Their next three games -- Dieruff, at Stroudsburg, at Emmaus -- are the most favorable of the six left on their schedule.

8. Bethlehem Catholic (8-8). The Golden Hawks are in the same spot as Freedom, needing three more wins overall or four wins in their final five LVC games to reach districts.

9. Allen (4-11). A 1-7 stretch has almost wiped out the Chicks' chances to reach districts.

10. Emmaus (5-11). The Green Hornets have hung with the middle-of-the-pack LVC teams but haven't beaten any of them.

11. Whitehall (3-13). Last year the Zephyrs qualified for districts on the last day of the regular season before making a run to the semifinals. They have already been eliminated from the district race this year.

The Easton wrestling team rebounded from a rough weekend to score an impressive 37-22 victory over Phillipsburg on Wednesday night.

The match between the river rivals usually is theatrical: last year’s Gatorade Replay football game between the 1993 Easton and Phillipsburg teams was announced at the annual wrestling match. On Wednesday, The Rovers (9-6) overcame a 1-3 outing at the NHSCA Final Four to beat Phillipsburg, ranked 19th in New Jersey by the Newark Star-Ledger. The win also avenged a 30-21 loss at Phillipsburg last year.

East Stroudsburg basketball is now on top of the world, sporting a 17-1 record, the best to start a season since going 18-1 in the 1941-42 season.

The Warriors (17-1, 4-1) remained in a first-place tie with Kutztown (16-1, 4-1) in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division with a dramatic 67-65 overtime win over Mansfield Wednesday night at rocking Koehler Fieldhouse.

The students, a racous group all night, stormed the court after the buzzer. Robby Pines clinched the win with two free throws with five seconds left in the OT.

Really an enjoyable time, great win, further validation that East Stroudsburg, picked to finish sixth in the PSAC East in the preseason, is the real deal.

Ten different East Stroudsburg players scored, led by freshman Terrance King with 13 points and Mike Tobin and Micah Covert with 11 points each.

East Stroudsburg's next home game is at 3 p.m. Saturday against always tough West Chester at Koehler Fieldhouse.

Another frenzied crowd? Why not. East Stroudsburg, ranked No. 22 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll, will likely move up if it beats West Chester.

After practice Tuesday, when their freshman 103-pounder went down with a broken leg, the Bethlehem Catholic wrestlers gathered in a circle, cried and prayed.

“That was something special,” Golden Hawks coach Jeff Karam said.

Even more special would be a miraculous return for Darian Cruz, something Karam did not call out of the question. Cruz, the area’s top-ranked wrestler at 103 pounds, sustained a broken tibia at practice that had him on crutches and out of the lineup for Bethlehem Catholic’s match at Northampton on Wednesday.

Karam said he was uncertain whether surgery would be required and could not predict a return date. However, the Becahi coach said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Cruz (23-3) back on the mat for the postseason.

“He’s a special, once-in-a-lifetime kind of athlete,” Karam said. “He wanted to be a four-time state champ, and I wouldn’t rule him out just yet. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see him at districts somehow, some way.”

The District 11 Class 2A individual tournament is scheduled for Feb. 26-27.

Bangor coach Dale Godshalk could not stand still after Tuesday's game at Southern Lehigh.

His team committed 30 turnovers. It shot 24.5 percent. It dropped its third straight game overall, falling 49-32 to Southern Lehigh in a pivotal Colonial League game.

Godshalk paced during my quick postgame interview with him. He knows his team cannot afford many more efforts like Tuesday's if it wants to return to the Colonial League playoffs.

Bangor was playing shorthanded when the night started. Leading scorer Kaitlyn McDonald missed her second straight game with a broken finger and is out indefinitely.

Still, the way the Slaters played troubled Godshalk.

"We pretty much didn't do anything," he said.

Southern Lehigh, meanwhile, gave one of its best efforts of the season. The Spartans were sloppy with the ball, committing 36 turnovers. They played with passion, though, in a game that may prove pivotal in the league standings. Eleni Dimou (right, with the ball) had a big night for the Spartans with 14 points and eight steals.

With Pen Argyl beating Wilson 39-32 on Tuesday, Southern Lehigh moved two games ahead of Wilson in the South Division race. Southern Lehigh hosts Wilson on Friday. A win by the Spartans would all but lock up the division.

* * * * * * *

Elsewhere in the Colonial League, Northern Lehigh crushed Salisbury to move closer to locking up the North Division title. The Bulldogs host Bangor on Friday with a chance to go up four games in the division with four games to play. They remain overwhelming favorites to win the league at this point.

While Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh continue to close in on division titles, the race for the two wild-card spots in the four-team league tournament has grown more interesting. Bangor, Wilson, Pen Argyl, Palmerton and Saucon Valley are separated by just two games. All but Palmerton have five league games left; the Blue Bombers have six league games remaining.

* * * * * * *

In the Lehigh Valley Conference, Central Catholic claimed the biggest win of the night, outscoring Nazareth 17-7 in the fourth quarter to rally for a 47-40 win.

Nazareth's loss, coupled with Parkland's win over Bethlehem Catholic, cut Nazareth's wild-card lead to one game. Parkland has won six straight overall and four straight in the LVC to creep into the playoff picture.The Trojans still have an uphill battle to get into the LVC tournament, though. They still have games against Central Catholic, Nazareth and Northampton after playing Allen on Friday.

Liberty and Northampton also won Tuesday, keeping them rolling toward the LVC tournament.

Moravian junior guard Amy Heffner returned from a nine-game absence tonight and performed in a manner that had to make her mother, Patti proud.

Never mind that Patti Heffner watched from heaven instead of in person. She died on Jan. 5 following a bout with brain cancer.

Amy Heffner, who had not played since Dec. 12, scored 12 points and had five rebounds and two steals in Moravian's 97-63 non-league win over Alvernia at Johnston Hall.

Heffner, a graduate of Parkland, was 8-for-8 fro the free throw line. She played 16 minutes.

The Greyhounds, ranked No. 13 in both the d3hoops.com and the USA Today ESPN Division III Top 25 Coaches' Poll, have scored 90 or more points in two straight games and extended their winning streak to 11 games.

Jessica Foran, a senior guard, scored 18 points and is just 20 points shy of become the 21st female player in school history to score 1,000 points.

Morning Call Sports Reporters Stephen Miller and Tom Housenick blog about high school and college sports action on and off the field in and around the Lehigh Valley, only at themorningcall.com.

Meet the bloggers

TOM HOUSENICK watches every move Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum makes on the court, laughs at every joke by Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon and watches all the Divisions II and III coaches and players do it for the love of the game. Basketball makes the cold weather season go by fast. Already can’t wait for late February and early March when each possession could result in a season ending or continuing on.

Wrapping up his ninth year at The Morning Call, STEPHEN MILLER is back for year No. 4 on the LVC football beat. He chronicled Central Catholic's state-championship run in 2010, watched Nazareth win its first LVC title in 2011 and saw the league crown tri-champions for the first time in 2012. He has also covered the Phillies, college football and a variety of prep sports while with The Morning Call. To stay updated on the 2013 LVC football season, check out the Varsity blog and follow him on Twitter @mcall_smiller.